Kentucky Jury Convicts Florida Man in Prescription Pill Scheme

A Florida man has been convicted by a jury in Kentucky for operating a prescription drug pipeline between the two states. A Christian County jury this week deliberated less than a hour and found 27-year-old Peter Nibert guilty of conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances.

The jury heard evidence that he repeatedly mailed large amounts of Oxycodone from Florida to Kentucky. Nibert was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"The abuse of painkillers like Oxycodone and hydrocodone is fueling overdose deaths in Kentucky," General Conway said. "We're losing more than 1,000 people a year to prescription drug overdoses. Because of the hard work of everyone involved in this case, we have put a stop to a scheme that was bringing thousands of illicit pills into the Commonwealth."

Nibert's co-defendants were two Hopkinsville men, 24-year-old Cary Alder who will spend ten years behind bars and 26-year-old Scotty Highsmith, who was sentenced to 15 years. The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office says Nibert mailed as many as three-thousand pills to the Hopkinsville men, who then sent cash and money orders to Nibert after selling the drugs locally. At one point in 2010, Highsmith had deposited nearly 17-thousand dollars in Nibert’s bank account over a three-week period.